A textile printing method of this type in the prior art has been carried out using a textile printing apparatus as shown in FIG. 1 (see JP H08-156353 A). In such a conventional textile printing method, fabric 3 wound in the form of a roll is set at a fabric supply section 2 upstream of a printing section 1 and the roll formed fabric 3 is unwound into the form of a sheet. And, the fabric 3 of sheet form is printed as desired with a textile printing ink jet printer 4 in the printing section 1, then passed through a dryer 5 and finally taken up onto a take-up roller 6. And, in the printing section 1 there are provided: a conveyer belt 8 guided by guide rollers 8a and 8b whereby the fabric 3 to be printed with the textile printing ink jet printer 4 is guided to travel; and a thickness detection sensor 7 upstream of the textile printing ink jet printer 4 for detecting a thickness of the fabric 3 to adjust the height of the rollers 8a and 8b, thereby making the height in conveying surface of the conveyer belt 8 adjustable. The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 also includes an inlet guide roller 9, a belt tensioning roller 10, and a belt tensioning adjustor spring 11.
In the conventional textile printing method in which the fabric 3 wound in a roll form and set in the fabric supply section as mentioned above is unwounded or drawn out for supply into the textile printing ink jet printer 4 via the guide roller 9, the apparatus is needed to cease its operation each time one roll of fabric 3 finishes printing and a new roll of fabric 3 needs to be mounted and passed into the textile printing section 1 for its reoperation.
On the other hand, since fabric 3 is of a material large in stretchability, it is difficult to wind the fabric in the form of a roll of large diameter and the rolled fabric 3 set in the supply section 2 must be of small diameter. Since the fabric 3 thus in length cannot but be not so much long, reoperation caused by replacements of the rolled fabric in the supply section must frequently occur, giving rise to the problem that the production efficiency remains unimproved.
In view of what is mentioned above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved textile printing method which allows a sheet of fabric elongated in length to be continuously printed without causing a textile printer to cease its printing operation whereby such an elongated sheet of fabric can be printed at an increased productivity. Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved textile printing apparatus for carrying out the textile printing method.